Mr O,

I prefer to
concentrate on the rich culture of the Chinese people
- and
the tremendous contribution that so many of their
people have made to our world - in the fields of
medicine, science, education, the arts, and so on.

We have many Chinese Australians who are part and parcel
of our country and who continue to contribute so much.

Communist China is to be watched - definitely, but then
so are other super powers like Russia, and the US. What's
currently happening in the US - we don't want to happen
here.

Foxy,

Do you support Victoria signing up to China's Belt and Road Initiative? I have the impression that you do.

Misopinionted,

I'm sure that neither Foxy or I want Victoria to sign up to the Belt and Road project. We differentiate between

* the Chinese government - a repressive, totalitarian, chauvinist government -

* and the Chinese people, whom it represses, especially its non-Han minorities.

And we also have the maturity to be able to distinguish Chinese people from China-proper from those in Hong Kong, and those in Singapore, and in Taiwan, and in all of the other countries of south-east Asia. And from Japanese, Korean, Filipino/Filipina, Thai, Cambodian, Lao, Burmese and Indonesian people, which you seem to have great difficulty doing.

And of course, from Australian-born Chinese whose ancestors were here probably well before yours. I went to a funeral in Darwin in 1960 for an old Chinese man who had been born in the Territory but, as you would have concurred, never could become an Australian citizen.

Yes, it s a complicated world in which we have to make fine distinctions - it would be so much easier for you, I suppose, if the world was simply 0 or 1 - on or off - this or that. i.e. a Manichaean world.

But it's not, and never has been.

Joe

Mr O,

Beyond the economics, the Belt and Road initiative
carries clear political risks for Australia.

Australia's attempts to balance its alliance with
the US and economic interdependence with China has
become even more difficult as both have become
"rude and nasty" in pursuit of their interests under
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

Tying ourselves ever more tightly to either protagonist
is imprudent. The more the US and China beat each other
up - the more room for manoeuvre the other powers will
have.

Foxy and LOUDmouth,

I say sign up! I have been saying that Australia has a Chinese future so I reckon it will show that I have been right all along. So, sign up and prove me right so that I can have the last :)

The BRI is just another chance for China to get a foot in the door. It will provide the funding for infrastructure projects but it will make sure they are done with Chinese technology, materials, and manpower. The only thing the recipient will get out of the deal is a big debt and an increasingly Chinese community that won't be going home and won't give two hoots about your multicultural ideals.

Hi Mr O,

The wife's cousin (true) Dennis has a message for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCBeCeKv4Y8

He must be whanau, once charged me 25 bucks NZ for one of his CD'd, which I thought he gave me as a gift. Gee, what happened to the good old days when a smart whitefella like me could have got half of Aotearoa for a blanket and a hand full of beads?